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1986 was a year of celebration for PM Magazine! Susan Dahlin and co-host Tom McNamara traveled beyond North Carolina to Hawaii for fun in the sun. July 1986 also signaled a change in co-hosts when Tom became a news anchor at a station in Arizona. WRAL reporter Rick Williams was tapped to be Susan’s co-host. They traveled to Disney World in Florida where the fun continued. Enjoy the memories of PM Magazine from 1986.

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September 6, 1946. That is the day WRAL-FM joined big brother WRAL-AM on the radio. To get the full scoop on how WRAL-FM came into being, we turn to Fred Fletcher’s book, TEMPUS FUGIT to get the facts and a

Enjoy these outtakes from the popular evening program “PM Magazine” with hosts Tom McNamara and Susan Dahlin circa 1984. You’ll also see legendary WRAL news anchors Charlie Gaddy and Adele Arakawa, as well as chief meteorologist Greg Fishel in a few of the bloopers. Background music is “Kodachrome” by Paul Simon.

“The Pumpkins Strike Back” is a delightful, cheesy series of four vignettes that aired on WRAL-TV during the late night Halloween movie on October 31, 1981. During the commercial breaks, “The Pumpkins Strike Back” would air prior to the commercials, then back to the movie.

Rowell Gorman, “The Man of a Thousand Voices”, wrote the script and provided different voices to the pumpkin characters, as well as appearing in the production. Other “actors” were staff members at WRAL, many who had never acted before – and that will be apparent! The vignettes were produced by the WRAL production staff.

The parody is loosely based on several blockbuster movies including STAR WARS, PSYCHO and PATTON. But “The Pumpkins Strike Back” is in a league of its own. Enjoy!

NOTE: Single channel audio. Originally produced on 3/4 inch videotape.

PM Magazine was a weekly television program that was part local/part national. WRAL was one of many stations that participated in this story sharing cooperative made up of member stations across the country.

This particular episode aired September 29, 1987. It is one of the latter shows produced at WRAL. Susan Dahlin was the co-host along with former news reporter Rick Williams who replaced the original co-host Tom McNamara who accepted a news anchoring position in Arizona. In 1988, Rick – a native New Yorker, returned to his news roots at WPVI in Philadephia.

PM Magazine host Susan Dahlin and the production crew decided to explore outside of North Carolina, waaaay outside and explore Norway. Susan’s family roots run deep in that Scandinavian country. One of the segments featured Susan catching up with her Uncle Arne in Oslo, the capitol of Norway. Arne Dahlin is a very gifted artist, as you will see in this story. For those who know Susan, she is an accomplished artist too!

Enjoy this story about Susan and her uncle getting together after not seeing each other for 17 years.

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Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. is a diversified communications company founded in 1937. This website has two primary missions – to preserve CBC’s rich history and to make it accessible to the public.